Research Interns Display Futuristic Projects at IITGN

Futuristic projects such as developing un-manned vehicle navigation system for all kinds of roads, project to develop applications to use eye moment of a person with neurological disorders

Ahmedabad, Gujarat, July 14, 2014 -(PressReleasePoint)- Futuristic projects such as developing un-manned vehicle navigation system for all kinds of roads, project to develop applications to use eye moment of a person with neurological disorders like cerebral palsy, designing a remote controlled fireproof robot for firefighting and so on were displayed at Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) on Friday (July 11, 2014). The projects which were carried out by students from across the country during their Summer Research Internship Programme (SRIP) at IITGN were displayed in the form of poster presentations.

IITGN faculty, Prof. Shanmuganathan Raman who was one of the coordinators of SRIP said, “We are excited with the kind of work and results the students have produced during their internship in just a little over two months duration. Therefore, we decided to provide them a platform to showcase and share their projects with the research community. We have plans to extend the summer research internships at IITGN to more students from top universities of the world in future. ”

Kapil Soni, a BTech student of Charoter University of Science and Technology in Anand, said, “Our project aims to develop a system of navigating cars through any kind of roads with the help of GPS. We install a device on the vehicle which keeps it connected to the satellite. Any obstacle that comes towards in its way, potshots and speed breakers, etc. are detected by the satellite and the vehicle is maneuvered automatically.” Kapil was working on the project with BTech students Mukesh Rawat of IITGN, and Sarvesh Jain of SGSITS Indore under the guidance of Prof. Prakash Dandekar. Soni said, “It has been an exciting experience where we got to practically apply the theoretical lessons we learnt in classrooms. We also got to learn about several new technologies in the process.” The students had also developed a working prototype as a part of their project.

Apart from the hard core science and technology the poster presentation also displayed projects of students which were aimed at solving various social issues. Vishani Vohra of LD Engineering College in Ahmedabad displayed her project which aimed at understanding issues of drinking water in urban slums. Vohra chose Allahnagar as her sample and found that both quantity and quality of the water available there was very low. She has also identifies other related social and technical issues and is working on finding their solutions. Vohra worked with Dr. Hiranmayee Vedam during her internship.

The SRIP at IITGN also had international participants. Catherine Wargo of University at Albany, State University of New York, was researching to understand the Indian context of “active aging”. “We found that Active aging in India is significantly associated with education, household, income and good health. It was also found that higher household income and work status are associated with active aging behavior,” said Wargo who was interning with Prof. Tannistha Samantha.

SRIP is aimed at enabling IITGN students as well as students from other institutes to work with the institute’s faculty members on their research projects every summer. The students not only gain academic and research experience through the programme, but also receive certificates for their participation at the end of internship.

More than 180 students from educational institutes all over the country, including several IITs, undertook internships at IITGN this summer. The number of students seeking to join SRIP nearly doubled this year to more than 9,200 from 4,865 applicants last year.